He would never have expected that at the bottom of this rift would exist such a treasure! Even with Huang Xiaolong's calm demeanor, he couldn't help getting excited, moreover, in this small cold spring pond, he detected two natural spiritual energy fish, not one!
Two natural spiritual energy fish! It took Huang Xiaolong some time before he could calm down…
It was fortunate that he had Heavenly Treasures like Godly Mt. Xumi, otherwise, not even Saint realm experts could reach this far in the rift. 'Even the top of the Heavenly Treasures List, Godly Mt. Xumi, was covered with a layer of crystallized ice due to the cold azure wind, as strong as a Saint realm expert's flesh is, it cannot compare to the Godly Mt. Xumi.' Huang Xiaolong thought to himself.
Then, the next step he needed to think of was how to refine those two fish.
The truth is, although Huang Xiaolong had broken through to Xiantian Eighth Order, his strength was still lacking in order to refine these natural spiritual energy fish, even taking into consideration the existence of the Thousand Beast Cauldron in the Linglong Treasure Pagoda, it was a trying task.
In the end, Huang Xiaolong observed the spiritual energy gathering around the cold spring like fog and decided to first refine it, increasing his strength. If he could advance to Xiantian Ninth Order after refining the spiritual energy around, he would have a chance to absorb and refine the two spiritual energy fish.
Although the spiritual energy around the cold spring could not compare to the two fish, it was sufficiently dense, the spiritual energy contained here was ten times stronger than the azure cold wind Huang Xiaolong had refined earlier.
Immediately, Huang Xiaolong brought out the Linglong Treasure Pagoda and started the Thousand Beast Cauldron array. Slowly but steadily, he absorbed and refined the spiritual energy with the Thousand Demon Engulfing Destruction Array, only stopping when he sensed that it was nearing the limit. Then, he initiated the Heaven and Earth Origin Reverting Array to dispel the cold element within, before swallowing and refining the pure spiritual energy in his body.
One day after another passed.
As Huang Xiaolong refined the spiritual energy around day in and day out, his battle qi cultivation enhanced rapidly, advancing into late-Xiantian Eighth Order before long.
One month later, he stepped into late-Xiantian Eighth Order.
The spiritual energy here was ten times or more abundant and rich than the azure cold wind he first came across. As Huang Xiaolong's strength continued to climb higher, the time required to refine the spiritual energy shortened as his speed increased. Two months later, he fully refined every shred of spiritual energy around, successfully advancing into peak late-Xiantian Eighth Order.
Peak late-Xiantian Eighth Order!
Half a step more to breakthrough to Xiantian Ninth Order.
Huang Xiaolong's enthusiasm dampened slightly. According to his original plan, if he could advance to Xiantian Ninth Order, there was a bigger chance he could refine and absorb the two spiritual energy fish, but now…
Huang Xiaolong hesitated a little as he stared at the two spiritual energy fish inside the pond. If he forcefully refined them, there was a possibility for the frigid cold element to enter his body. At that time, not only would his cultivation not increase, he would bring upon damaging consequences upon himself, the gains wouldn't make up for the loss.
He pondered for a moment and decided to first explore the place. After all, the two fish were in the pond, they couldn't fly away. With that in mind, Huang Xiaolong guided the Godly Mt. Xumi deeper in.
Flying using the Godly Mt. Xumi for a short while, suddenly the scenery up ahead changed, the barren and dry environment was replaced by lush greenery full of vitality, the soil was covered with a luxurious green coat. Furthermore, the rock walls on both sides, which were supposed to be hidden underneath a layer of ice, had plants and foliage covering the rocky surface.
They were like two different worlds.
What is happening?! Huang Xiaolong was stunned. Quickly guiding Godly Mt. Xumi to the edge of the greenery, Huang Xiaolong exited the Xumi Temple and appeared outside. The moment he was out, he felt a gentle warm breeze blowing, just like the summer wind, extremely comfortable, whereas taking a step back, biting cold wind seemed to penetrate bone-deep, as if his internal organs would freeze solid any moment.
This was like a two-layer world of ice and fire. Merely the distance of one step, yet two very distinct sensations.
A short while later, Huang Xiaolong returned to his senses. Looking in front, he was sure there was something strange, hence, he flew forward.
Half an hour later, Huang Xiaolong was standing in front of a tree!
A tree ten zhang tall, with flowing red energy at its trunk that looked like flames! In fact, this tree, from the trunk, branches, leaves, was entirely flaming red in color! Growing among the branches were a dozen or so fist-sized fiery red fruits. These pieces of fiery-red fruit exuded vast spiritual energy no weaker than the spiritual energy around the cold spring.
The only difference was that the spiritual energy from the cold spring contained extreme frigid energy within, tyrannical at the same time, while these pieces of fiery red fruit contained a gentle fire element. Standing beneath the tree was like standing in the sunlight, warm and cozy, serene and content.
"A tree like this could actually grow in this deep rift." Huang Xiaolong muttered as he studied the red tree.
Back when he was still in the Duanren Institute, he had gone through many books that introduced Martial Spirit World's odd wonders, but none of them mentioned about this particular tree or that cold spring.
Huang Xiaolong circled the tree as he pondered; could it be that this tree did not belong to the Martial Spirit World? A thought suddenly struck Huang Xiaolong's mind.
Godly Mt. Xumi was a treasure hailed from the divine Buddhist World, the Asura Tactics was the Netherworld's top cultivation technique… if things from Buddhist World and Netherworld could exist here in the Martial Spirit World, then there was a chance that this tree came from the Divine World!
"No matter, eat first, talk later." Seconds later, Huang Xiaolong shook his head for thinking too much. Converging these nonsensical thoughts, he sat down cross-legged on the ground and opened his mouth. A suction force pulled one of the fiery red fruits straight into his mouth as he started to run the Asura Tactics to absorb the spiritual energy within.
The instant the fiery-red fruit melt into his body, a warm energy traveled to his four limbs and every part of his body. The same situation when he refined the cold spring spiritual energy, the battle qi in his Qi Sea rolled and rumbled.
…
Again and again, battle qi crashed against the Ninth Order barrier. Two days later, Huang Xiaolong finally refined a piece of the fire-red fruit. Though he had yet to break through, he was closer than before. Huang Xiaolong continued without stopping, sucking in a second fruit into his body and started refining.
By the time he finished refining the second fruit, he finally broke into Xiantian Ninth Order. Despite that, Huang Xiaolong did not stop. He continued to refine the fiery-red fruits one by one.
Sitting cross-legged underneath the big tree, the twin dragon martial spirits hovered above Huang Xiaolong's head, the atmosphere of dragon might flooded the entire rift as glows of midnight black, gold, dark ember, and fiery-red swirled around Huang Xiaolong.
Breaking through Xiantian Ninth Order, the black and blue dragons reached the size of a hundred zhang in length, seemingly covering heaven and earth. Ancient True Dragon qi poured from the void above.
One month later, Huang Xiaolong, who was sitting underneath the tree, stopped at last. Getting up slowly, the ground shook beneath his feet. After refining all the fiery-red fruits, his cultivation reached peak mid-Xiantian Ninth Order!
Peak mid-Xiantian Ninth Order!
Feeling the abundant power inside his body, Huang Xiaolong couldn't help roaring towards the sky like a dragon. His roar reverberated through the rift, piercing the sky, reaching as far as a hundred miles around the Broken Tiger Rift area.
Running his battle qi, Huang Xiaolong stomped his feet on the ground, raising a cloud of sand. With Huang Xiaolong as the center, deep fissures lined the ground surface. Stones and rocks rolled down from both sides of the rift walls and the entire rift area seemed to be shaking.
This was Huang Xiaolong's current strengthㅡearth shattering might, enough to collapse a mountain.